Dr. Rachel Moseley

So historically, there's this idea that autistic people lack empathy.

Lots and lots of research showing that if you do any kind of artificial experimental task or a questionnaire measuring empathy,

Autistic people laugh empathy, but this very much doesn't relate, doesn't correlate with what autistic people tell us.

What they tell us is that actually, I feel all the emotions in the room around me.

I'm so affected by other people's emotions.

So we actually explored this a little bit in our own research, and we found likewise that essentially when people have stronger emotional empathy, which means that they feel the emotions of other people very intensely, whereas their cognitive empathy, which is like their understanding of other people's emotional states, might be a bit lower.

So we found that autistic people, because they have this really strong emotional response to other people's emotions,

It's actually overwhelming for them.

So they have emotional empathy in abundance.

They feel everything, all the emotions of other people, and it really affects them actually in a harmful way because it's so overwhelming.

So it's a case where historically researchers said one thing, autistic people have said that's not true and that's harming us.

And now we are beginning to, the research is beginning to catch up and align with what autistic people are saying.

Well, my autistic joy is a really neglected research area.

So we're beginning to have more studies on what's often known as autistic flourishing and

as you say, joy.

And the kinds of things that autistic people talk about as bringing them joy are engaging in their passions.

So what some people call special interests, I prefer to call passions.

So autistic people describe that as being something that's joyous.

They also describe sensory joy.

As you say, we often talk a lot about sensory distress, but autistic people talk a lot about joy in sensory experiences as well, and joy in stimming in repetitive movements.